Friday, March 22, 2013

Julia Gillard called a party room meeting to settle the Labor leadership matter, and the winner was Tony Abbott.

Labor managed to inflict serious new damage on its present leader, fatally wound its only real alternative, expose itself as deeply riven, and subject itself to ridicule.

It was the first time that an Australian prime minister had called a party-room meeting to settle the leadership, only to discover that there was no challenger.

"This has never happened," said ANU political scientist John Wanna. "The closest thing would be when John Curtin died and Frank Forde was put in for a week while they sorted themselves out."

But nobody had died. Labor was suffering an internal crisis of confidence in the Prime Minister.

After more than 2½ years of being consistently in a losing position in the Nielsen poll, the great bulk of Labor MPs did not believe the government could win the election that Gillard had called for September 14.

Supporters of Kevin Rudd started to organise a bloc of votes to elect him leader in the hope of salvaging the government. Three things went horribly wrong for them.

First, they were unable to amass a majority of the caucus. They were within a handful of votes, but needed fresh impetus. They thought they could overcome this, but for the other two problems.

The second failure was that the man who was supposed to deliver the critical votes for a winning tally, Simon Crean, turned out to be carrying no more votes than his own.

Crean was supposed to break the stalemate by declaring that he had lost confidence in the Prime Minister. In the leadership spill that would eventually follow, he was counted on to bring three or four other votes to give Rudd a winning edge.

But while he certainly broke the stalemate, he turned out to represent a faction of one.

And third, their candidate, Rudd, refused to fight on his own behalf. He had sworn that he would not challenge Gillard but would only take the Labor leadership again if drafted by an overwhelming majority, and if the position were vacant.

Gillard turned out to be prepared to vacate the leadership to settle the matter, but Rudd was not handed the overwhelming majority he demanded.

"If he had actually lifted the phone" to lobby for votes, said one of his dismayed allies, "he'd be prime minister now." But he insisted on the sanctity of his pledge, even though it doomed his cause and exposed his supporters to the wrath of the Prime Minister. Rudd kept his promise, but he has destroyed his credibility as a leadership candidate.

As he entered the caucus room, he paused before the TV cameras and announced that he would not be a candidate. It was a moment of gut-wrenching disappointment for his supporters and gleefully comical anti-climax for his detractors.

By Thursday night, at least three Rudd supporters had paid the price of openly supporting Rudd; Crean had lost his cabinet post, Richard Marles had resigned as parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, and Joel Fitzgibbon was reconsidering his position as government Whip.

More than 40 MPs had allowed themselves to be counted as his supporters in a caucus of 100 available members. Few will consider repeating that exercise.

One of his most important and effective lieutenants declared: "I'm over Rudd." But in the process, Labor has revealed that almost half the caucus was prepared to vote for Rudd even without him asking. This indicates that Gillard suffers a major deficit of confidence.

And Crean confirmed publicly what others have realised - that Gillard cannot win an election, and that she is basing her strategy on divisive "class war". Labor's Prime Minister, its alternative leader, and the government itself have been damaged. It looks ridiculously dysfunctional, and it is exactly as it appears.

“Labor’s mis-management of the RET ranks right up there in terms of massively expensive, wasteful, policy and administrative failures as the carbon tax, the mining tax, debt management, illegal boat arrivals, pink batts, and their so-called Building the Education Revolution program,” Senator Boswell said.

“Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has announced that the government will stick with the 41,000GWh target for large scale renewables by 2020 – despite the fact that it will represent closer to 27% than 20% from renewables, even as the target rapidly moves out of reach because of Labor’s serial mismanagement of the policy.

“The government totally undermined the target when it promoted a huge blow-out in roof top solar installations through ridiculously generous subsidies that created vast numbers of effectively worthless Renewable Energy Certificates,” Senator Boswell said.

“The companies that have to acquit the target simply bought tens of millions of these phantom certificates, for next to nothing, and now have enough in the bank to not need to go back to the market until, at the very least, the end of next year.

“As a result, wind farm development has collapsed, and the target is disappearing over the horizon.”

Senator Boswell said the spot prices for both large scale generation certificates, and small scale technology certificates, were languishing at well under $40 – with no sign they will go significantly higher for a very long time.

“Wind energy, which is the government’s only hope of meeting the target, needs a certificate price of much closer to $60. A certificate price at that level could be years away.

“Meanwhile, the clock is ticking and, if the target is going to be met, there will have to be an even greater injection of taxpayer cash than has been wasted to date, so rent-seekers can get their turbines built and reap massive profits in the future.

“If this government was re-elected in September, it would then be hurling billions at the problem from the $10 billion clean energy fund that the likes of the Greens and the Member for New England foisted on us. It’s just more proof, if any were needed, that this mob could not organise a large drink in a brewery.”

Via email

Teachers told to fall into line and use the same teaching methods across a subject

HOW children are taught in the classroom is set to be transformed in state schools.

Principals have been told the same teaching method must be used across a subject schoolwide.

Education Queensland deputy director-general Lyn McKenzie said the new "pedagogical framework" - a teacher practice plan - requires state schools to have a consistent teaching approach for the first time.

Ms McKenzie said the move, to be coupled with a push for parents to become more involved in their children's schoolwork, would help lift students' results and take schools from "good to great".

"The research is showing that there needs to be a consistent practice across the school when you are teaching the way you do multiplication, the way you do reading," Ms McKenzie said.

She said it wasn't beneficial for students "to have to learn a whole new way of doing something because that teacher teaches it slightly different".

"Teachers bring their personality and their energy and their professional ideas of how to re-explain something, but there needs to be a consistent approach," Ms McKenzie said.

She said teachers would then be able to work together better to help boost student results.

"We know from the research that if you get consistent teaching practice within the school and that teachers work collaboratively to learn the skills from each other, that students' results will lift," Ms McKenzie said.

"So this is the next piece of the puzzle to go from good to great. This, and working with parents, will take us to the absolute next step."

Schools have until the end of the year to have a pedagogical framework in place, with each state school able to use different methods across subjects.

Queensland Association of State School Principals president Hilary Backus, Queensland Secondary Principals' Association president Norm Fuller and Queensland Teachers' Union president Kevin Bates said some schools already had this in place and agreed it could help results.

But Mrs Backus said it was important to remember teacher-student relationships were the most important element of teaching, while Mr Bates said the framework's success would depend on how it was implemented.

The framework has been launched alongside the parent and community engagement plan, following research showing teachers have less of an effect on students than parents.

Australians will need to wait a little longer for faster and universal broadband, after the company building the NBN again delayed delivery of the project.

NBN Co announced on Thursday afternoon it was revising down its forecast for the rollout of fibre optic cable from the June 2013 target of 341,000 premises to between 190,000 and 220,000 premises. It is the third time the target has been revised.

NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley said: "We are accountable for the delay and are disappointed it has occurred.

However, he laid the blamed squarely with contractors who he said were responsible for meeting the targets.

"The problem is we are just not seeing the ramp up of construction workers on the ground that would be needed to deliver these targets," Mr Quigley said.

On Wednesday, during question time, the opposition asked Communications Minister Stephen Conroy if he was using carrier pigeons to seek updated information about connections from NBN Co.

Mr Conroy was being grilled on whether NBN Co would achieve is June 30 targets.

Senator Conroy said there had been ''workforce mobilisation issues'' in Western Australia, South Australia and Northern Territory.

He said NBN Co had taken control of construction of the NBN in the NT because contractor Syntheo, a joint venture between Service Stream and Lend Lease, had failed to meet rollout targets.

Syntheo, told the Australian Securities Exchange on Wednesday it had "pulled out" of construction in the Northern Territory ahead of an expected announcement on significant delays, according to the Australian Financial Review. The company is also responsible for all construction work in Western Australia and South Australia, under a separate contract.

The NBN Co will now take over the rollout in the Northern Territory including training and employing "additional specialist telecoms workers ('fibre splicers"') to help recover lost time in the rollout of the network".

Last month, Mr Quigley blamed Syntheo for NBN Co needing to lower its forecast of existing premises to be passed by optic fibre cable this June to 286,000. There were 52,014 premises passed at the end of 2012.

Senator Conroy said the information about the connections was detailed and complex and involved multiple construction partners. ''It's not simply a question of NBN Co pushing a button,'' he said. On Wednesday he said 40,000 Australians were using the NBN.

The opposition spokesman for communications, Malcolm Turnbull has condemned the delay.

"This is just 14 per cent of the December 2010 target and barely more than 50 per cent of the target announced last August. It is also just another forecast," Mr Turnbull said.

He has said Australians would have faster and cheaper broadband under the coalition and promised to release the coalition's NBN policy "months before the election".

Last week a new report by a consultancy group, outlined the policy options for the coalition should it win the federal election in the interest of "informing and invigorating" the policy debate. The report by Allen & Overy and Venture Consulting reiterated major elements of the NBN, "not just the total project", must be subject to a clear cost and benefit analysis. And among other things, it said existing assets that can be effectively deployed, should be made available by the government at low cost, not be paid to be shut down, as is the case with the Telstra copper network.

The NBN Co has said its remit is to deliver fibre to 93 per cent of premises, as asked by the government, not to explore alternative existing methods of delivery.

The report also recommended the role of the NBN Co be reviewed to perhaps act more as a coordinating agency, than a builder, contracting out design, build and maintenance responsibilities to third parties.

NBN Co also announced the replacement of chairman Harrison Young with Siobhan McKenna as of today. Mr Young resigned today after three years as chairman. Ms McKenna is a managing partner of Ten Network.

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Background

Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.

Most academics are lockstep Leftists so readers do sometimes doubt that I have the qualifications mentioned above. Photocopies of my academic and military certificates are however all viewable here

For overseas readers: The "ALP" is the Australian Labor Party -- Australia's major Leftist party. The "Liberal" party is Australia's major conservative political party.

In most Australian States there are two conservative political parties, the city-based Liberal party and the rural-based National party. But in Queensland those two parties are amalgamated as the LNP.

Again for overseas readers: Like the USA, Germany and India, Australia has State governments as well as the Federal government. So it may be useful to know the usual abbreviations for the Australian States: QLD (Queensland), NSW (New South Wales), WA (Western Australia), VIC (Victoria), TAS (Tasmania), SA (South Australia).

For American readers: A "pensioner" is a retired person living on Social Security

"Digger" is an honorific term for an Australian soldier

Another lesson in Australian: When an Australian calls someone a "big-noter", he is saying that the person is a chronic and rather pathetic seeker of admiration -- as in someone who often pulls out "big notes" (e.g. $100.00 bills) to pay for things, thus endeavouring to create the impression that he is rich. The term describes the mentality rather than the actual behavior with money and it aptly describes many Leftists. When they purport to show "compassion" by advocating things that cost themselves nothing (e.g. advocating more taxes on "the rich" to help "the poor"), an Australian might say that the Leftist is "big-noting himself". There is an example of the usage here. The term conveys contempt. There is a wise description of Australians generally here

Another bit of Australian: Any bad writing or messy anything was once often described as being "like a pakapoo ticket". In origin this phrase refers to a ticket written with Chinese characters - and thus inscrutably confusing to Western eyes. These tickets were part of a Chinese gambling game called "pakapoo".

Two of my ancestors were convicts so my family has been in Australia for a long time. As well as that, all four of my grandparents were born in the State where I was born and still live: Queensland. And I am even a member of the world's second-most condemned minority: WASPs (the most condemned is of course the Jews -- which may be why I tend to like Jews). So I think I am as Australian as you can get. I certainly feel that way. I like all things that are iconically Australian: meat pies, Vegemite, Henry Lawson etc. I particularly pride myself on my familiarity with the great Australian slanguage. I draw the line at Iced Vo-Vos and betting on the neddies, however. So if I cannot comment insightfully on Australian affairs, who could?

My son Joe

On all my blogs, I express my view of what is important primarily by the readings that I select for posting. I do however on occasions add personal comments in italicized form at the beginning of an article.

I am rather pleased to report that I am a lifelong conservative. Out of intellectual curiosity, I did in my youth join organizations from right across the political spectrum so I am certainly not closed-minded and am very familiar with the full spectrum of political thinking. Nonetheless, I did not have to undergo the lurch from Left to Right that so many people undergo. At age 13 I used my pocket-money to subscribe to the "Reader's Digest" -- the main conservative organ available in small town Australia of the 1950s. I have learnt much since but am pleased and amused to note that history has since confirmed most of what I thought at that early age.

I imagine that the the RD is still sending mailouts to my 1950s address!

I am an army man. Although my service in the Australian army was chiefly noted for its un-notability, I DID join voluntarily in the Vietnam era, I DID reach the rank of Sergeant, and I DID volunteer for a posting in Vietnam. So I think I may be forgiven for saying something that most army men think but which most don't say because they think it is too obvious: The profession of arms is the noblest profession of all because it is the only profession where you offer to lay down your life in performing your duties. Our men fought so that people could say and think what they like but I myself always treat military men with great respect -- respect which in my view is simply their due.

The kneejerk response of the Green/Left to people who challenge them is to say that the challenger is in the pay of "Big Oil", "Big Business", "Big Pharma", "Exxon-Mobil", "The Pioneer Fund" or some other entity that they see, in their childish way, as a boogeyman. So I think it might be useful for me to point out that I have NEVER received one cent from anybody by way of support for what I write. As a retired person, I live entirely on my own investments. I do not work for anybody and I am not beholden to anybody. And I have NO investments in oil companies or mining companies

Although I have been an atheist for all my adult life, I have no hesitation in saying that the single book which has influenced me most is the New Testament. And my Scripture blog will show that I know whereof I speak.

The Rt. Rev. Phil Case (Moderator of the Presbyterian church in Queensland) is a Pharisee, a hypocrite, an abomination and a "whited sepulchre".

English-born Australian novellist, Patrick White was a great favourite in literary circles. He even won a Nobel prize. But I and many others I have spoken to find his novels very turgid and boring. Despite my interest in history, I could only get through about a third of his historical novel Voss before I gave up. So why has he been so popular in literary circles? Easy. He was a miserable old Leftist coot, and, incidentally, a homosexual. And literary people are mostly Leftists with similar levels of anger and alienation from mainstream society. They enjoy his jaundiced outlook, his dissatisfaction, rage and anger.

Would you believe that there once was a politician whose nickname was "Honest"? "Honest" Frank Nicklin M.M. was a war hero, a banana farmer and later the conservative Premier of my home State of Queensland in the '60s. He was even popular with the bureaucracy and gave the State a remarkably tranquil 10 years during his time in office. Sad that there are so few like him.

Revered Labour Party leader Gough Whitlam was a very erudite man so he cannot have been unaware of the similarities of his famous phrase “the Party, the platform, the people” with an earlier slogan: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer". It's basically the same slogan in reverse order.

Australia's original inhabitants were a race of pygmies, some of whom survived into modern times in the mountainous regions of the Atherton tableland in far North Queensland. See also here. Below is a picture of one of them taken in 2007, when she was 105 years old and 3'7" tall

Julia Gillard, a failed feminist flop. She was given the job of Prime Minister of Australia but her feminist preaching was so unpopular that she was booted out of the job by her own Leftist party. Her signature "achievements" were the carbon tax and the mining tax, both of which were repealed by the next government.

The "White Australia Policy: "The Immigration Restriction Act was not about white supremacy, racism, or the belief that whites were higher up the evolutionary tree than the coloured races. Rather, it was designed to STOP the racist exploitation of non-whites (all of whom would have been illiterate peasants practicing religions and cultures anathema to progressive democracy) being conscripted into a life of semi-slavery in a coolie-worked plantation economy for the benefit of the absolute monarchs, hereditary aristocracy and the super-wealthy companies and share-holders of the northern hemisphere.

A great little kid

In November 2007, a four-year-old boy was found playing in a croc-infested Territory creek after sneaking off pig hunting alone with four dogs and a puppy. The toddler was found five-and-a-half hours after he set off from his parents' house playing in a creek with the puppy. Amazingly, Daniel Woditj also swam two creeks known to be inhabited by crocs during his adventurous romp. Mr Knight said that after walking for several kilometres, Daniel came to a creek and swam across it. Four of his dogs "bailed up" at the creek but the youngster continued on undaunted with his puppy to a second creek. Mr Knight said Daniel swam the second croc-infested creek and walked on for several more kilometres. "Captain is a hard bushman and Daniel is following in his footsteps. They breed them tough out bush."

A great Australian: His eminence George Pell. Pictured in devout company before his elevation to Rome

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here